MSE News: Orange to raise monthly mobile costs

Human_Writes

thischris1991 wrote: »

Will try again in a bit and see if I get another rep that has a brain and understands English law without being racist.

I think you'll have a job getting through to anyone and arguing a legal point on the telephone, they're all just CSRs whether they are in the UK or India, they'll just be sat reading from an webpage or briefing on how to handle these sorts of calls.

Wilt

sarah1972 wrote: »

I havent called Tesco and complained about all the price increases so I wont be doing the same to Orange.

You aren't contracted into paying Tesco the increased prices, though.

Cat2011

Bit miffed that they're putting up prices, but it's only a very small amount - 86p for me - and everything else is going up in price, so why not mobiles. The phone calls you've made to the ombudsman will probably cost more than the annual increase...

thischris1991

Having read the article by News editor Guy Anker:

Telecoms regulator Ofcom says its rules on allowing consumers to exit a contract without penalty still apply, even if a provider states in its conditions that prices may rise during the contract.

These rules state: "Providers shall give subscribers adequate notice not shorter than one month of any modifications likely to be of material detriment.

"Providers must allow subscribers to withdraw from their contract without penalty upon such notice."

The question is therefore what is 'material detriment'. Ofcom cannot give a steer but says you should first complaint to Orange if you feel you should be allowed to exit penalty-free.

If you're rejected or you do not receive a satisfactory response within eight weeks, you can ask the Communications Ombudsman service to adjudicate.


I would take this as good as a statement we will get??

ACG

Why should you have to go to all the trouble though! Ofcom should turn round and say these are the rules abide by them or let people leave - its crazy that you should have to spend 2-3 MONTHS arguing the toss when ofcom seem to state orange are breaking the rules.

tagq2

Human_Writes wrote: »

There is no such act as the Telecoms Act 2003, there is a Communications Act 2003:

The General Conditions are written and modified separately by Ofcom per 48(2) of the Act. And they are here. I'm guessing someone's repeated the misunderstanding in this Which article.

markmcw

I too got this text this afternoon, thinking to myself 'yes! An opportunity to leave Orange at least!'

After visiting the site linked in the text, 'you cannot leave' was the general consensus.

What is the best solution to get out? To be honest, paying £42 a month now is too far. And with 13 months to go refuse to pay to leave.

Solutions?

sarah1972

markmcw wrote: »

I too got this text this afternoon, thinking to myself 'yes! An opportunity to leave Orange at least!'

After visiting the site linked in the text, 'you cannot leave' was the general consensus.

What is the best solution to get out? To be honest, paying £42 a month now is too far. And with 13 months to go refuse to pay to leave.

Solutions?

can you drop your tariff to a lower priced one maybe

markmcw

sarah1972 wrote: »

can you drop your tariff to a lower priced one maybe

I attempted to and they refused, because of my 'expensive' HTC which they refused to repair therefore had to buy a new phone myself - out of pocket.

I just want to leave, and when calling regarding signal issues in my town (Larne, Northern Ireland) and speaking to a team leader and supervisor (of which whom didn't speak English very well) they came to the conclusion if I wanted to leave WITHOUT paying $699 (don't understand why it was dollars) - they said they'd send out an engineer and call me back in 72 hour (this was on Wednesday and said they would call me back on Sunday - good knowledge of days and hours there) they never called me back. And every attempt to get in contact with that team leader has failed..

Had enough just want out. :mad:

disappointedwithorange

daleski75 wrote: »

From what I can gather Orange's terms and conditions state they can do that and they have already passed this through OFCOM although there is some conflicting information about this if Orange did or didn't consult OFCOM first.

And don't you have to prove the £2 or so extra a month would be detrimental to you in order to have grounds to cancel?

I am not sticking up for Orange whatsoever by the way just voicing my opinion and I did threaten to cancel my t-mobile contract when there was that debacle about downgrading everyone to 500mb of data from 2gb (of which I was an effected customer)

Any rise is materially detrimental, whether it is 1p or £1m. OfCom told me they hadn't been consulted, for what it's worth. And even if their T&Cs state that, the Act represents our rights as customers, which Orange can't override.